Years went by since Aven formally got accepted into the Council as her own boss, and we all had grown to be a family to each other. Especially once Debbie finally died and ended up here. Rex was particularly happy about her showing up, even if she was angry at his health and condition. She turned out to be the Depression Boss, and her true form was a bear. She was always vicious about protecting people she saw as her children.

In those years, we improved our paperwork too. We appointed assistants to help us with work and manage small stuff. Personally, I also sent mine to meetings to spend my time painting in my office. I’ve had the question come up if it’s morally acceptable to shove all my responsibilities onto someone else. I think the better question is what anyone’s going to do about it. The answer is nothing.

One day, Aven and I were enjoying a rather rare day off together. We were just chatting about some gossip while I plastered some makeup on her. The emergence of the 1900s put new makeup at an all time high. After all, a little makeup doesn’t hurt, right? And a lot of it makes you look gorgeous!

“Did you hear about Gerome getting engaged?” Aven asked.

“The depression rep or the narcolepsy one?”

“The depression one.”

“Oh good for him! Glad the poor guy’s finally getting someone. Who’s the lady?”

“Mary. The self harm rep.”

“Shut. Up,” I said, dropping my jaw. “You’re serious?!”

“Mhm, yeah,” she smirked. “I couldn’t believe it either.”

“That’s seriously-”

Suddenly, Dallas appeared behind us, stumbling embarrassingly into the kitchen counter. It was hard to teleport somewhere you hadn’t been a lot before, so we didn’t make fun of him for the blunder.

“You two. Lucas’s office. Now,” he said.

“I’ll send Laura like I do for all my meetings,” I rolled my eyes.

“And Ki can go for me,” Aven added.

“This is an in person thing. You’ve got a visitor from Hell.”

“From Hell?” I asked, confused. “Who?”

“Beatrice Hawthorne.” Aven and I froze in our tracks.

“What?”

“Lucas isn’t giving you a choice,” he said. “Just come on and get it over with. The sooner you come, the sooner she can leave.” In another flash, Dallas disappeared.

“D-Do we h-have to-”

“Shhh,” I silenced. “It’ll be scary, but let’s just get it over with. Come on, let’s go.”

I took Aven out of the house and to the Council building. When we started to approach Lucas’ office, she whimpered and covered her ears, almost falling to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Loud… thoughts…” she groaned.

I took her by the arm and she hid behind me as we stood near Lucas’ office. I took a deep breath, crossed my arms, and entered. There, Lucas was sitting at his desk while Beatrice sat in a chair near him with her snake around her leg. That bitch has a lot of gall to show her face again… Curiously, the woman from years ago, Lisha, was sitting beside her, with all the devilish features I remembered. Although, Beatrice looked like she had filled out a bit over the years. It was weird to not see her stick thin; it definitely made her look better, in all honesty. Not that I’d ever tell her that.

Beatrice had been anxiously fiddling with her skirt and looked up at me and Aven looking… scared? That bitch won’t get any sympathy from me no matter how she tried to lie to me with looks. I kept gritting my teeth.

“You wanted to say something to them, Beatrice?” Lucas asked impatiently.

“I do,” she said.

“Well, go on,” he sighed. “But if you start throwing any insults or mockery at them, I will personally send you out of the Afterlife with a snap of my fingers. And note how I never said you’d be going back to Hell.”

“Yes sir,” Beatrice nodded. I’ll admit, I was already surprised that she bothered to use manners. She got up and tried walking towards us before I stuck my hand out.

“I think you should stay far away,” I hissed. “Not only do none of us want you here, but Aven can hear your thoughts against her will when you get close, and it’s especially hard to block out the, ahem, strong minded people like you.”

“Wha- Since when?!”

“There’s a lot you don’t know and don’t need to know,” I snarled. “Just try to not think of every possible insult under the sun for once in your life.”

“Go on,” Lisha urged her after a few moments of silence. “You can do it.”

“Who are you supposed to be anyway?”I asked Lisha. I didn’t trust anyone who associated themselves with her. “Beatrice’s friend who’s going to help her belittle us after this?”

“Hm? Oh, no, I’m Lisha, queen of Hell,” she said, holding out her hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Mhm,” I grunted, not taking her hand.

“I’m actually here to talk, and so is Beatrice.”

“Congrats on finally making a friend that wasn’t your snake. Should’ve known you’d have to go to Hell to make one,” I said, laying on the sarcasm thick and rolling my eyes. “So what do you have to say?”

“I think she should unplug her ears first,” Lisha said, pointing to Aven. 

I gave her a small nudge and motioned for her to remove her hands, which she slowly did. We saw Beatrice take a deep, shaky breath before letting out a big sigh.

“Look,” she started. “I know I was a real bitch to you two in the past, and… directly caused your deaths… Trust me, I haven’t forgotten. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and I say really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, regret everything. I know you don’t want to talk to me, and you shouldn’t even want to see me ever again, but… I just want you to know I’m sorry…”

“Is she for real?” I whispered to Aven. The apology was convincing me, but I needed Aven’s mind reading to fact check her.

“Y-yeah,” she stuttered.

“Wow,” I marveled. I really couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to accept it though. “That’s… unexpected. What the hell broke you?”

“Hell did,” she said, glancing away. “Getting tortured for your sins for years lets you know just how bad they were…”

“I bet you’ve got a lot,” I added, trying to not show sympathy. “But fine, I’ll accept the apology, since it’s apparently genuine.”

“Thank you,” she smiled. It sent shivers down my back. Not because she was smiling with some evil bitchy grin. But because she actually looked genuinely happy to apologize to us. “Hey, and Ada- Ave- ARGH! AVEN, DAMMIT! Fuck that’s hard!”

“You’ll get it down some day,” Lisha giggled, patting her back.

“But listen… Aven, I don’t understand what you’re doing to yourself and your body, and I don’t agree with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it, but… to each their own, and I won’t get in your way of… of being…”

“C’mon,” Lisha encouraged.

“I won’t get… I won’t get in your way of being you,” I finished. That was a fucking pathetic apology. Doesn’t even begin to make up for what I did to her! It… It…

“Beatrice…” Aven whispered in disbelief, coming out from behind me to look her in the eyes. “You… you said my name… and called me she.” Oh shit, she had. Beatrice didn’t deadname Aven, plus she addressed her as female… Was she really changed…?

“I… I guess I did…” she stuttered, giving a small laugh.

“Your apology was all I could’ve asked for,” Aven smiled warmly. “I never asked for you to agree or understand. Just to let me be me. I accept the apology.”

“I really, really just should’ve shut my mouth about things I didn’t understand,” she sighed, looking even more in bliss. It kind of made me angry how happy she looked for some reason.

“Yeah, you should’ve,” I retorted. “So, you gonna apologize to the entire family when their time’s up too?”

“I plan on it. I owe my brother one above the rest… Especially with how I acted at your funeral,” Beatrice mumbled, sounding ashamed.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” I hissed. “Not impressed one bit.” Apparently at my own funeral, she had tried to steal all the attention and flip Aven’s skirt.

“I-I know,” she stammered, bowing her head. “I’m really sorry… to both of you. I know I’ve been a real bitch, and like I said, you probably don’t wanna see me…”

I admittedly didn’t hear all of her apology after that. Yeah, I was shocked at her apology, but I was more shocked at what was going on behind her. Everyone was looking at it while Beatrice stupidly stumbled through some half-baked apology follow-up. Even Lucas jumped to his feet when he saw it. Right next to my name read on the engraving, a picture of Beatrice formed with the words Beatrice L.E. Hawthorne, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Boss after that.

“Don’t look at me like I have three heads!” Beatrice whined. Typical. Thinks we’re giving all of our attention to her.

“Bea…” Lisha mumbled. “Bea, you…”

“Yeah, I apologized!” she stomped angrily. “What the fuck did I do wrong this time?!”

When she finally connected the dots and traced our line of sight, Beatrice turned behind her and looked at the engraving, confused. She squinted at the engraving.

“What the fuck is a BPD?” she stupidly asked. I took my chance to screw with her.

“You’ve got one growing on your forehead,” I smirked. I could hear Aven give a slight chuckle beside me.

“It looks like… you were meant to be part of The Council after all,” Lucas said in disbelief. “That is… fascinating.”

“What does that mean?!” Beatrice asked. “What the hell is going on?!”

“It means you belong here,” he answered. “With Max, Aven, and I.”

“I’m with Lisha already, and that’s all I need!”

“It’s your choice,” Lucas shrugged. “But it means you wouldn’t have to go back to Hell. No more of that annual punishment. Max can show you around before you decide,” Lucas offered. Beatrice looked totally lost, with a blank stare of helplessness.

“Or you can just go back to Hell,” I grumbled.

“I’ll gladly go back if it-”

“Bea,” Lisha interrupted, almost sounding like she was begging. “Please… give it a chance…”

“I… Ok,” she sighed. “I’ll decide after a look around.”

“Thank you.”

“Lisha,” Lucas coughed. “You and I have more than one business subject to discuss, don’t we?”

“Y-yeah.”

Aven, Beatrice, and I all were pushed outside so that Lucas could do whatever business he had with Lisha. I guess it was my job to give a very anxious looking Beatrice a tour of the office workplace.

“I guess we’re showing you around,” I sighed, trying to sound kinder. “But if you say one thing, I’ll slap you back to-”

I suddenly felt a stabbing pain around my ankle, making me jump and look down. A shadowy tendril retreated under the door with a thumbtack. Ugh, Lucas… I rubbed my ankle and rolled my eyes.

“Just c’mon,” I mumbled. “And try to keep your mouth and mind quiet.”

*   *   *   *   *

I showed Beatrice around the Council building, explaining the structure of it all like I did to Aven. She looked genuinely interested and even asked a couple questions. She even politely introduced herself to a few reps, though the other bosses just quietly shuffled away from her.

“Hey Max,” she said when I was done with the tour. “I really am sorry for every-”

“I don’t care whether you’re sorry,” I snapped. “You tortured me for years! Years of my life you dedicated to grinding under your heels!”

“And I’m sorry!” she fussed, putting on a look of shame. “I really am… To you, Aven, the Irish girl, the skinny guy, the fat old lady-”

“You can’t even be bothered to learn their names!” I exploded. “Who do you think-”

“Max,” Aven whispered. “Shhh. Please.”

“Fine,” I sighed, turning back to Beatrice. “But your apologies are hollow to me. Try to do some actual good things in your life and maybe we can talk.”

“Alright,” she nodded, looking 100% serious. It kind of surprised me how she agreed to that. I wasn’t actually being serious. “I have one last apology though… I’m sorry for what I said all those years ago… You really are my sister-in-law, Max. I’m proud of it.”

“I…” That stunned me more than anything else. I didn’t know what to think or feel. Never in my life or afterlife had I thought she’d say words like that…

“You too, Aven,” Beatrice continued. “I’d love to be friends or… grow close to sisters-”

“Don’t push it,” I interrupted, regaining my composure. “Let’s just get back to his office already.”

“Ok,” she nodded.

As we started walking back, I could see Beatrice thinking something in the corner of my eye, then suddenly turned and saw Aven staring at her. And ever so subtly, as though she didn’t want me to see, I could see Aven mouth the words “thank you” to Beatrice. I just turned my head and pretended I didn’t see it.

When the three of us made it back to Lucas’ office, his door was cracked open again for us to come in. Lisha looked slightly unsettled while Beatrice embraced her in her arms.

“So, what’s your decision?” Lucas asked. I prayed to god she’d just want to crawl back to Hell with her demon girlfriend.

“I… I’ll be a boss.” she said confidently. “But I have demands!”

“Go on,” he said, raising an eyebrow and clearly just wanting her to humor him. “I want to live with Lisha and commute here.”

“You know that’s hell to work out, right?”

“Good thing she has a girlfriend willing to move Heaven and Hell for her,” Lisha grinned, wrapping her arms around Beatrice’s waist. “I’ll do all the paperwork!”

Lucas looked particularly vexed with gritted teeth. I hated how she just got to be let in like this. No fucking way Lucas was about to let her in-

“Then welcome to The Council, Beatrice,” he said, suddenly laughing like a defeated man and holding out his hand.

Beatrice took his hand and looked like she just got struck by lightning for a second. Apparently it was so jarring that she stumbled backwards. Of course, we all took a step back as her dreads started turning green at the ends and forming into snakes. She looked unsettled and stumbled around, looking for a mirror.

“What’s hap-” 

Her speech was cut short when she looked at the pocket mirror and gave out the loudest scream. Then suddenly she teleported away in a flash of white before we heard another scream out in the office. When we peeked our heads out to see Beatrice, a rep, and a metric ton of papers on the ground. The situation was only more humorous because it gave us a shot straight down her skirt.

“Someone should teach her to use that magic,” Lucas coughed.

“Nah, let her struggle,” I shrugged. “This is way funnier.”

*   *   *   *   *

Later that evening when Beatrice and Lisha left and there weren’t many people left in the office, I went to Lucas. His door was cracked slightly and I invited myself in. He was just filling out some paperwork.

“We need to talk.”

“Beatrice?” he asked expectantly.

“Beatrice,” I growled. “I can’t believe you’d let her in!”

“We let Aven in,” he shrugged. “I don’t see the big issue.”

“Don’t you dare compare Aven to her!”

“We let them in on the same principle. They were both meant to be a part of the Council, so who are we to say no?”

“You could’ve very easily said no!” I shot. “She’s going to make life a living hell for the rest of us down here!”

“She’ll fulfill a job.”

“You’re going to regret it.”

“Fine, but I’m not going to just say no to The Afterlife.”

“Hmph, whatever,” I mumbled, turning away. “I thought you would understand.”

“Maybe she has changed, Max,” he said before I could leave. “Maybe she’s only going to be as bad as you force her to be.”

“That woman was born bad,” I hissed, walking out. “Don’t let her fool you.”